Jos Buttler, fracas and all, has done his future claims to lead no harm in Bangladesh
Despite England inflicting defeat upon Bangladesh for the first time in their last seven home one-day series, I fully expect skipper Eoin Morgan and opener Alex Hales to return to the side for the 50-over tussles with India in January.
Hales has scored four one-day centuries in the past year, while England have done extremely well under Morgan’s stewardship and have plausible designs on reaching No1 in the world rankings.
But what this series has shown is that there can be no complacency whatsoever. The likes of Ben Duckett and Sam Billings, who both scored 60 plus runs in Chittagong last night, have shown their ability and are knocking on the door very loudly.
I have little doubt that Morgan, who along with Hales opted against travelling to Bangladesh amid ongoing security fears, will come back into the team, although he has been fairly inconsistent with the bat for some time – he has two half-centuries in 16 innings.
If Morgan fails to hit a consistently high level or the time simply comes for England to look for another leader, then Jos Buttler has done his case to captain the one-day side no harm at all.
Placid character
He has been at pains to stress he is the stand-in skipper but he has won two of three matches in subcontinental conditions, in which England have simply laid down and died in the past.
Head coach Trevor Bayliss advised Buttler to keep his emotions in check after he lost his cool in the face of over-zealous celebrations from the Bangladeshi fielders in Dhaka on Sunday but I’m sure that will quickly be forgotten.
I believe the fracas was a good thing. Buttler is a quiet, placid character but showed that if someone rubs him up the wrong way or steps out of line, whether that is inside or outside the England dressing room, he has a fire inside of him.
Similar to all-rounder Ben Stokes, who was one-day vice-captain for this tour, when Buttler says something, given the level of his experience and natural talent, people listen.
Another lesson learned during this series, perhaps particularly during the first ODI in Dhaka, is this young side has a lot of character and when the chips are down, this team is not going to wither. It will stand and fight, just like Buttler.